Hard choices

I've played a lot of games over the last 15 years, but I haven't had many individual decisions that stuck with me, as in, decisions that I agonized over, even briefly.

In Arkenwood. I played Jimmy Buzzard, a wannabe bandit magically teleported in from 1800s Appalachia, the youngest of the Buzzard Boys (a real gang). All he wanted to was to fit in and gain respect. As Jimmy, I had the idea for an adventurer's guild, to help newer characters get kitted out. Then I missed a few sessions and the guild moved on without him. Most of the players were focused on building a covert resistance to this politician, the details aren't important. I had Jimmy betray the guild to the politician. Unfortunately, the game ended literally right after that, so we never got to play it out.

In Alfheimr. My character Sibyl was (in my eyes) this ultimate badass. She had overcome death, unlocked two new specialist classes, and led an expedition to recover the eye of a god. She found the eye, ripped out her own, and put it in the still-bleeding socket. After this she was down to like 4 HP. On her way out of the dungeon, she ran into a giant who was cursed to pee constantly until he pissed in the eye of a god. We were too weak to fight him. He asked to pee in her eye. I said yes. After that, she smelled a bit like piss for the rest of her life. However powerful she was, that ultimate badass character concept did not survive.

Today, in Froggy's Inquest game in republican Rome. My character Fulvia is a scheming rich lady trying to figure out who framed her friends, Vestal Virgins, for illicit sexual activity. She uncovers a part of a conspiracy with a thread leading to Fabius, a general who wants to give power to the plebs, who has been unsuccessfully seeking her hand in marriage. He has recently risen greatly in the world, making him (socially) worthy of her attention, but he's personally and physically unattractive. And his ideology is directly opposed to her own. She invites him to an intimate dinner while her bodyguard (another player) breaks into his house, searching for clues. The bodyguard discovers that Fabius is not just a node in the conspiracy, he is the central conspirator, responsible for at least two deaths, hella corruption, false accusations, and blasphemy. Meanwhile Fabius proposes marriage, again. He has recently become wealthy, his main political rival is dead, and he is most likely going to be elected consul, or even dictator. Fulvia accepts. That was the end of the session. We'll see what happens next time.